Volume 33

The municipal swimming pool opens today, Saturday 11 June for the summer season.

Álora Feria 2005

The annual Feria of Álora will take place from 3 to 7 August this year. The celebrations will take place at the Campo de Fútbol (football ground) and the surrounding areas, with the streets of Santa Ana, Calle Suspiros leading up to the football ground closed to traffic from 8.00 pm until dawn.

Renovation of the Álora Football Ground

Improvements to the town’s sports facilities continue with plans to renovate the Nuestra Señora de las Flores football ground. The Mayor, José Sánchez, reported at the sports gala held last weekend that work should start in spring next year. This will involve the reconstruction of the football ground with a spectator stand to seat 800 people. The pitch itself will be made bigger and covered in artificial turf and the lighting system will be replaced.

Pavement Improvements in Álora

Funds have been allocated for the extension of the pavement from near Mercadona to the Convento de Nuestra Señora de las Flores. The first stage will be up to Fuente de Higuera. This is a popular walk for local people and is considered too dangerous to be without a pavement.

Álora Update

The Junta de Andalucía has arranged the works for the road between Zalea to Calle Carmona in Álora. The works are already taking place on the road between Cartama and Casapalma.

First steps taken towards a new Hospital in the Valle Guadalhorce region. The members of the Junta de Andalucía have presented the project of the future Hospital in Valle del Guadalhorce. This was a promise from Manuel Chaves, the president in his last visit to Álora with the President of the Government Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

The Town Halls of Alora and Coin will sign an agreement with the Junta de Andalucía to improve the public transport, that means better prices and services

The works for the new children’s park in Álora has begun. The area will be made suitable for the children to play and for the parents to keep an eye on them.

The works for the new health centre continues after receiving more than 400.000 Euros from the Town Hall in Alora.

Tony King Claims Innocence as Bail Requested

Tony King, the British man accused of the murder of the Coín girl, Sonia Carabantes, was in court in Málaga this week. The prosecutor in the case called for his holding on remand, already approaching two years, to be extended by another two years, while his defence team called for him to be released on bail. The prosecution said that they saw a high risk of King jumping bail, should it be granted. King was brought to Málaga on Tuesday from the Albolote prison in Granada where he is being held. No decision has yet been announced by the court. The case proper is due to start in October. Under Spanish law an extension of his holding on remand or bail must be granted by the end of the first two years on remand, in King's case, by September.

King asked to address the court yesterday, and spoke in English claiming his innocence and entering into details about some of the evidence against him allegedly found at some of the crime scenes, but the magistrate stopped his declaration and explained that he would have the chance to defend himself in the forthcoming court case, and that yesterday he could only say if he was in agreement or not with what his defence team had called for.

The prosecutor is calling for a 34 year prison sentence for King for the murder of Sonia Carabantes, in the case which is set to start on October 17th.

King is also accused of the murder of the Mijas youngster, Rocio Wanninkhof, where he faces a possible further 26 year sentence. The Wanninkhof case is expected to be held before a jury, while the Carabantes case will not.

Wolf Cub

Lobo Park in Antequera has recently announced the birth of Polar, a very special wolf cub. Polar was born to a she-wolf of the Alaskan tundra, a species of which there are only three hundred left in the world. The birth took place as the beginning of May. Also this spring another she-wolf, of European origin, has given birth to four cubs in the wolf park.

Royal Birth

Princess Cristina introduced her new daughter and latest royal, Irene, to reporters on Thursday.

The princess and Irene were greeted by more than 250 onlookers waiting outside the hospitals in Barcelona shouting their congratulations, Irene was born Sunday, weighing in at a healthy 8 pounds.

She is the sixth grandchild of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia and will be ninth in line to succeed to the throne in Spain.

New Airport ID Regulation

Passengers, whatever their age, must now produce identification on all flights, including domestic journeys

From Tuesday May 24th the Spanish Civil Aviation Authority demands airlines to check the identification of all their passengers, whatever the age, on both international and domestic flights. The new ruling changes the modus operandi of Spanish airlines who until now have only had to confirm the identity of passengers on international flights to destinations outside the Schengen group.

Many passengers had been informed of the new regulations as they had been reported previously in the media. “The biggest problem has been with Spanish families travelling with small children”, admits another worker in the check-in section. According to the Iberia service manager in Malaga there have been “very few” cases of people being turned away and most have been found a seat on a later flight.

Despite the initial hiccups the majority of passengers consulted agreed that the reform in the aviation law was a good thing, providing more security measures.

Spain Signs SR Code on Food Advertising to Minors

On 9 June, the Spanish Minister of Health, Elena Salgado, and representatives of the largest international food industry groups (notably FIAB - Federacion de Industrias de Alimentacion y Bebidas), signed a self-regulatory code on food and beverage advertising to children. FIAB, La Asociacion Espanola de Anunciantes (AEA) and the Spanish SRO (Autocontrol) played key roles in discussions leading to the adoption of the code. The PAOS code (Prevencion de la Obesidad y Salud) comes as a response to recent concerns regarding childhood obesity in Spain, where 16% of Spanish children aged between 6 and 12 years are obese, according to Salgado.

The Rain In Spain Falls Mainly On The Plain – But Not For 60 Years

Crops are withering, fountains are turned off and swimming pools will stand empty through the summer across much of southern Spain as the worst drought for 60 years reaches emergency levels.

Spaniards have a saying that neatly sums up their plight: “Now the trees chase the dogs.” This, though, is no laughing matter; half of Spain is subject to water rationing and there is no sign of rain until autumn as La Sequia takes a grip.

In Andalusia, southern Spain, some rivers and reservoirs have become trickles, with water levels half those of last year. Watering gardens is banned.

Rainfall between October and May was a third below the average figure since records began in 1930.

Microsoft Adds Spanish, French to Speech Server 2004

Microsoft on Monday rolled out the second release of Speech Server 2004, and touted the software's expanded language support.

Microsoft Speech Server 2004 R2 now includes support for U.S. Spanish and Canadian French, the Redmond, Wash.-based developer said. Enterprises, the target audience for MSS 2004, can now deploy speed-enabled applications designed for U.S. English, U.S. Spanish, or Canadian French speakers. The new speech recognition and text-to-speech engines are included in R2, which is a no-cost update to current users.

Spain's Bank Presence Back in Japan as BBVA Opens Branch

Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria announced Wednesday the opening of a branch in Tokyo with the aim of financing Japanese firms doing business in Latin America.

The second-largest Spanish bank by assets has a strong presence in Central and South America, where long-ailing Japanese banks are still cautious.

BBVA, with a staff of 10 in Tokyo, is the only Spanish bank operating in Japan. Spain's largest bank, Banco Santander Central Hispano, pulled out of the country in 2000.

Canadian Grand Prix

Alonso was quickest among the regular drivers Friday at 1:15.376. Montoya and Raikkonen were second and third, respectively.

World championship leader Fernando Alonso described the first day of free practice for the Canadian Grand Prix as "nearly perfect" after setting the fastest time of any race driver.

The Renault driver was pleased to have outpaced both McLaren drivers Juan-Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen by more than 0.2s, and indicated that his pace boded well for the weekend ahead.

"It was a satisfactory Friday for us," he said.

Nadal Wins French Open

Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal defeated Mariano Puerta 6-7 6-3 6-1 7-5 to win the French Open at his first attempt. It was a dramatic opening set - Nadal went 2-0 up but, after having treatment on his thigh, Puerta broke back and clinched a thrilling tie-break.

Nadal levelled the match at one-set all with a single break and strolled to the third as the Argentine visibly tired.

The pair swapped breaks twice in a fascinating fourth set but Nadal broke again in the 12th game to triumph.

World Cup 2006 Qualifying Match - Spain 1 – Bosnia Herzegovina 1

A last second goal from Valencia's Marchena saved a point for Spain against Bosnia in their World Cup qualifying match at Valencia's Mestalla stadium last Wednesday.

Telephone Options

Would you like to exchange the Spanish voice on your phone to your own language but don’t know how to change it or want to record your own answerphone message?

Following instructions below to change your settings. We found it was more effective if you listened to the options for a short while before pressing the buttons you require.

Press the "Mensajes" button on the telephone

You will hear the lady say a few options - press 1 (for Personal Options)

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